A recent survey by a legal group suggests that the international shipping industry is continuing to suffer from the credit squeeze, as banks refuse them new lending and enforce more strenuously repayment of the loans they have already made. Many new builds were started before there was any hint of an economic downturn, and as banks lending policies have become ever more cautious, the funding stream is drying up. The majority of respondents in the survey thought that business would get worse before it gets better.